This is my online, introduction to the
geography of Russia that is meant to accompany my HIS 241 and HIS 242
courses. On this web page, I have some general remarks about
Russia's geography. Below on the page are links to two interactive maps of Russia; one
requires the use of a "Flash" plug-in; the other does not. On
either map, you will find links to some specific geographic features of
Russia, such as the Ural Mountains. By following
any link, you will find additional information on that geographic
feature. Please note that most of these web pages are designed
for a monitor display of 1024x768. The pages will also display on
an 800x600 screen, but you will have to do some horizontal scrolling.

First,
remember that I have loosely defined "Russia," for the purposes
of HIS 241 and HIS 242, as roughly corresponding to the boundaries of
the former Soviet Union of the 1980s--old habits die hard. Having said that, there is no
other way around it, Russia, the largest "country" in the world, is
big, very big, comprising roughly 1/6th of the world's land mass.
From east to west, it spans eleven time zones and over 5,700 miles--the
distance from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok is even longer, over 6,000 miles.
From south to north, Russia spans about 40° latitude (42° to 82°),
a distance of over 2,500 miles.

Russia
is primarily a "northern" country, with most of Russia located above 50°
latitude--St. Petersburg is roughly the same latitude as Anchorage,
Alaska. Thus, Russia tends to resemble Canada more so than the
United States in terms of climate. This means that the
agricultural growing season tends to be short, limiting the types of crops that can be grown.

Most of the
land consists of vast plains: steppe to the south, taiga in the
center; tundra to the north. This vast Eurasian plain, stretching
from the Pacific Coast all the way into Central Europe, is broken only
by the Ural Mountains in the middle--mountains that because of their
low height have never really been a barrier to travel or
invasion. There are mountain ranges along the southern border of Russia.

Although Russia
possesses a very long coastline--mostly along the north--it's overall
climate is primarily "continental" because most of its large
land mass is away from the moderating influence of the sea. The generally long, cold winters of the
continental climate have affected where the people have settled, what they can grow,
and what they can build.

Since Russia is very
large, communication has always been
a problem, and something that very much contributed to the long process
of creating a
centralized state. Most rivers flow north and south and thus
are problematic for east-west communication purposes, which is the way
that the country is generally oriented. Technically, Russia is no
longer a "land-locked" country with ports on the Baltic, Arctic and
Black Seas, but it took the country a long time, and a lot of efforts, to acquire those
harbors.

Russia is a country very much endowed
with rich natural resources, such as coal, iron, oil, natural gas, gold,
minerals. All of that helped to make the Soviet Union an
industrial power.

Finally, throughout my remarks on
Russian geography, I sometimes refer to "biomes."
A biome is
a large geographical area of distinctive plant and
animal groups, which are adapted to that particular
environment. The climate and geography of a region
determines what type of biome can exist in that
region. Major biomes include deserts, forests,
grasslands, tundra, and several types of aquatic
environments. Each biome consists of many
ecosystems whose communities have adapted to the
small differences in climate and the environment
inside the biome (www.blueplanetbiomes.org/world_biomes.htm).

Sometimes
I mix up these two terms; sometimes I interchange them. In general, the climate in Russia ranges
dramatically, from "sub-tropical" along the Black Sea coast to "Arctic" along
the Arctic Ocean coast. Most of Russia experiences a continental climate with
taiga as the predominant biome.

Flash Map of the Geography of Russia (this will open in an new browser window, recquires the Flash plug-in)--not yet available.

I also have links to some other online
map resources that are useful in the Russian history courses, and
I have available my old study map of Russia,
which I have scaled down from the original size of about 18x28".

Finally, I have some short audio remarks (*.mp3 format) of about five minutes on Russian geography--I had some
difficulty recording those remarks so bear with me on the quality!

Eurasian biomes (much of Russia falls within the taiga and tundra biome zones)

A more accurate, recent political map of Russia which shows the
now-independent countries of the former Soviet Union.